November Rain
by siriuslegolasmad
Summary: Draco knows what it's like to feel pain, but will this kind become too much for him... Slash.
1. It's your duty

_Out in the darkness, sobbing, sighing,  
Yonder, where the dead are lying,  
Over mounds with headstones gray,  
And new ones made but yesterday__   
Weeps the rain above the mould,  
Weeps the night-rain, sad and cold._

_Asleep__not dead__your grief is vain,  
Wild, wailing winds, November rain. _

He turned his tear streaked features to face the man before him. The blonde's hair was mussed and blood stained, the cut on his head oozing crimson liquid down his forehead and slowly running down his chin, dripping onto the pristine white shirt.

"Father…please." The older man turned his face away from the younger blonde for a second, an unknown emotion flitting across his face. The boy moved closer to him, reaching out to his Father's arm, wanting to feel some of the feelings that his Father lavished on his Mother. The love and the affection that was never given to him. All his life he had just wanted someone to_ love_ him, _need_ him and want him for him. He was lonely. It had been this way for a long time now. Brought up with few friends and a reputation to uphold on his shoulders, he had always been reassuring himself that it would be O.K. He would soon receive some affection, some love. But it never came to him. Now here was his chance to please his Father and have him smile at him like he did his Mother.

He stumbled backwards as the blow struck home, jarring his senses and causing blood to slowly drip out of his nose now as well. He held a shaking hand up, felt his nose and slowly brought it away. Red shimmered through the haze of tears that had sprung to his eyes again.

"No, Draco. You shall do this! I will not accept the reasons you have given me. You are a Malfoy! You shall uphold the honour which is expected of our family name." Draco's head dropped slowly down to his chest before he slumped to his knees.

"Draco…come. He waits and he is growing impatient. I…I sense it." Draco raised his head listlessly and met his Father's storm grey eyes with his own, the colour shared between them. He nodded once before climbing slowly to his feet again.

"I'm sorry Father. I will uphold the family honour. I am afraid I had a slight moment of…madness." He sighed and swallowed with difficulty as his Father caught hold of his arm, tightening the grip so he wasn't lost in the apparition or splinched. He closed his eyes as he felt the familiar vacuum sensation as they moved extremely quickly through darkness and space.

When he next opened them, he was in a dimly lit room, sparsely furnished with threadbare chairs and a ripped settee sat in the corner. Cobwebs hung thickly around the room and dust coated everything. He looked around warily as the silence stretched out across the minutes. He eventually opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by his Father as he squeezed his shoulder painfully hard. He gasped, quickly stifling it as he bit his lip, tearing the skin slightly and causing it to sting, a drop of blood beading, poised to fall either way. He glanced around warily as the swish of robes announced the arrival of someone else. A dark shape dissolved out of the shadows, tendrils of blackness swirling together to form the figure of a cloaked person. Draco gulped, shuffling backwards slightly into his Father, who gave him a slight frown before sidestepping round him. He bowed; low enough that his hair touched the floor, leaving trails in the thick dust, before speaking, in an awe filled voice.

"My Lord…here he is. He is very willing to be in your service. He will give himself completely to your cause and do everything you tell him." The figure moved forward slowly, barely sparing a glance at the crouched figure of Lucius. Draco held his ground as the figure advanced on him. He felt his nostrils flare slightly in fear as the cloaked figure of Voldemort stopped just in front of him. His gaze dropped to the floor.

"Who do you think you are?" A voice spat out not far from his ear. "Why are you not on your knees before me? Do you not know any respect for your elders? And your betters?" Draco gave a start and dropped quickly to his knees, feeling himself begin to flush slightly in embarrassment at the reproach from the Dark Lord.

"Better…now why do you think you are able to serve me adequately? I have many followers. What could a sixteen year old boy _possibly_ offer me that any of my other more…seasoned followers could not?" Draco swallowed, feeling the click in the back of his throat due to nerves and tried to speak. A croak escaped his opened mouth. After clearing his throat he began to talk, the slightest tremble belying the confidence he was showing.

"My L…Lord, I feel I can offer you a spy within the very realms of your enemies at Hogwarts. I am, after all, a student there. I could pass on their…what they are doing at Hogwarts. I could attempt to find out any plans and I could…even…befriend Harry Potter." He waited still gazing at the floor. His knees had begun to ache due to the coldness of the room and the hardness of the wood floor, which in some places, was dangerously rotten. He chanced a glance up at the monster in front of him. Voldemort was watching him with narrowed eyes. A long pale finger began tracing his own thin lipped mouth before he eventually spoke.

"Very well. You can try, I suppose. You will bear the mark of course?" Draco looked up quickly, his eyes widening to the likes of that of a deer trapped in headlights. He glanced to his Father and shook his head without thinking. Voldemort's wand was suddenly held underneath his chin, his red eyes flashing dangerously.

"What was that?" He hissed in a cold and venomous voice. "You will not take the mark? And why is that?" Draco opened his mouth to reply but was silenced as Voldemort caught hold tightly of his chin, squeezing the soft flesh of his cheeks together in a vice like grip.

"You will learn, Mr. Malfoy, that you will do what I tell you whether you like it or not. Now, roll up your sleeve…NOW!" Draco jumped as the last word was screamed at him. He began to shakily draw up the arm of his shirt, pulling back the black fur-lined cloak he was wearing.

"My Lord, please hear my reason…" He waited for some sign from Voldemort to continue. He carried on as Voldemort raised an eyebrow. "The reasoning behind my actions is this…if anyone was to see the mark upon me, then the ruse I am playing would be up. They would know and the people there would not trust me, let alone talk to me." He waited with bated breath. Voldemort sighed and waved his hand, idly.

"Very well. Take your shirt off." Draco froze as he rolled his shirt sleeve down. His Father glanced up quickly and motioned for him to do so. He glanced round, searching for anywhere he could escape within the room. There was nowhere. He slowly began unbuttoning the front of it, revealing a milky white muscular chest and a slight six pack. He attempted to not notice the almost hungry look within the Dark Lord's eyes. He dropped the blood stained shirt to the floor, still shaking on his knees. The Dark Lord began to circle him, carefully considering Draco's leanly muscled and shivering body. He suddenly wrenched up Draco's face.

"Look at me. I have to know that when you take this vow, you mean every word of what you say whelp." Draco swallowed and nodded, gaining eye contact with the snake like eyes. Voldemort lazily twirled his wand between his long thin fingers and asked,

"Do you, Draco Abraxus Malfoy, swear fealty to me, Lord Voldemort which will never waver?" Draco's eyes flickered slightly as he nodded. Voldemort caught hold of Draco's chin again, forcing him to look deeper into Voldemort's eyes.

"Say it." He hissed, rubbing a slow circle on Draco's chin with one of his long and yellowing finger nails.

"I s…swear fealty to you, My Lord and no-one else." The dark Lord held eye contact for a few seconds longer and then his face was dropped. Cruel amusement filled the Dark Lord's gaze.

"He fears me." Draco's eyes widened slightly as he cowered on the floor. The Dark Lord continued.

"He shall bear a different mark to that of everyone else. It will look no more than a tattoo to the untrained eye. It will go here." A cold point touched Draco on his right shoulder blade. He began breathing a little more heavily, panting with fear as the Dark Lord slowly brought his wand to touch him where he had pointed out to Lucius. As the wand touched Draco's skin, a white hot searing pain shot through his body, burning away any feelings of love he had, turning him into, at this precise moment, an emotionless shell. Another wave of pain surged through him and he slumped forwards onto his hands and knees, cringing, his eyes screwed tight shut. Whimpers escaped his mouth which he tried to keep within himself. After what felt like hours, but was actually a matter of minutes, the pain abruptly ended. Draco slumped forwards onto the cold floor. The dark Lord's voice above him kept him awake mere moments before he slumped forwards and didn't hear another word for a number of hours.

_First chapter there. Tell me what you think. The poem is not mine. It's something I found on the internet and thought would capture the essence of Draco's emotions later on in the story. Review! _


	2. Beginnings

A hand was stroking his forehead. It soothed him from the nightmares he had been having. He didn't want to open his eyes in case it went away. Voices were rumbling in the far off room. He ignored them, only concentrating on the hand. His eyes flickered open. A blurry, well and finely furnished room came into view. The blonde woman at the side of his bed, smiled at seeing him awake.

"Draco…" The voices fell silent as two more blurry people moved around the bed and into his peripheral. He blinked a few times to clear his vision, finally recognising the stroking hand as his Mother's. Her cheeks were tear stained and her eyes red. He turned his gaze to the other two people, his eyes widening as he realised they were his Father and his godfather, Severus Snape. Both were watching him eagerly, ready to start talking as soon as he woke up. Lucius slipped a hand to his wife's shoulder and squeezed it gently, causing her to turn around. He smiled at her affectionately and leant down and kissed her on the cheek.

"What did I say, Darling? I'd said he would wake up." Narcissa nodded, dashing at her eyes once again. She climbed to her feet and leant down and kissed Draco on the cheek. Lucius rolled his eyes impatiently before gently pushing her to the door.

"Leave us with him. Severus and I, we need to talk to him." Narcissa glanced down once at her son, squeezing his hand and biting her lip. Lucius smiled at her encouragingly.

"I'll call you as soon as we have finished." She let go of Draco's hand and moved to the door, as though it was against her better judgement. Lucius took the place of his wife and turned his eyes towards his son, the affection leaving them.

"You have had orders from the Dark Lord. You are to fulfil them at Hogwarts without drawing any attention to yourself. Severus here will help you with that." Draco swallowed and nodded mutely, the tendrils of fear curling in his stomach. He opened his mouth to attempt to speak but couldn't find the words to express himself. He closed his mouth again and then waited before trying again.

"What do I need to do?" His voice was no more than a croak, as though he had been screaming himself hoarse for the past hour or more. Lucius glanced at Severus.

"You will receive each set of instructions from the Dark Lord as you complete them. The first he has told me. You are to…befriend Potter. As you said yourself you could do this, he has chosen that as a route for his plans." Draco's breath was drawn in sharply, causing a stab of pain to shoot down his back. He groaned and screwed his eyes up waiting for it to die down. Lucius climbed to his feet.

"We shall leave you now." Draco nodded, turning his face away as he saw his Father leave. Tears built up and finally spilled down his cheeks, soaking into the pillow. His shadows shaking and his attention consumed by self pity, he didn't hear the door re-opening and someone pulling the chair out at the side of him. He let out a dry sob and was suddenly gathered into warm arms. He wrapped his arms around the person who was offering him the protection and love he needed.

"Shhh…Draco. Don't cry. I know it's horrible. I know. Shhh…" His Mother's voice calmed him slightly, enabling him to draw enough strength to stop himself crying. She let him rest his head on her shoulder, until his breathing evened out. She lay him back down in the bed, carefully covering him with the covers. She climbed to her feet and with a last sorrowful look at her son, left the room.

Page Break

Draco smirked widely as he saw his friend's moving across the platform towards him. His Mother and Father stood resolutely by his side, the barest of flickering glances from his Mother showing that something was wrong. Draco smoothed down his new robes, adjusting the new pocket watch he had been bought by his Father, who was even now resting a hand on his son's shoulder, wearing an identical smirk.

"Now remember, son, you must do what he's told you. Otherwise there will be certain…repercussions." His Father mumbled to him as Draco began to move to his friends. "Do NOT let your friends distract you from your duty." Draco shook his head, the smirk wavering for a second as he remembered the dark deed he had to do. He scanned the platform for any sign of Potter and his friends. A flash of red hair alerted him to the whereabouts of the Weasley's. His Father saw him scanning the platform and did so to.

"Now, Severus is going to help you get the friendship formed with Potter. All you have to do is follow his instructions without argument." Draco nodded. The sound of the train's whistle caused his Mother to grab in a tight hug and whisper to him,

"Don't worry. If you can't do it, I'll see that your Father…well…we'll see that you don't get hurt." Draco swallowed visibly and was horrified to feel the tears forming at the corners of his eyes. He wiped at them quickly, hitched a smile onto his face and tightened the grip on his Mother. His Father cleared his throat, announcing that they needed to go. Draco turned to his Father and was surprised to see a smile on his Father's face.

"I'm proud of you son. Do your best for your Father won't you?" Draco nodded and shook his Father's hand. He moved easily to the train, giving his parent's a last glance over his shoulder. His Mother gave him a watery smile, clutching onto Lucius for support and looking as though she was doing this against her better judgement.

"See you soon." He raised his hand and waved to them, watching them until they were mere dots on the horizon and then had rounded the bend. He sighed heavily, before turning and going to find the compartment he had left his belongings in. He swerved into the compartment, his eyes widening as he saw Harry and his friends in there. He frowned and sighed heavily, pushing open the door, feeling as though he may as well do a bit of preperation for whatever Snape may have in store for him to gain Harry's friendship and trust. They all turned to him, immense dislike and loathing filling the faces of the two boys as they saw him.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Draco shrugged.

"Just come to get my things out of here seeming as you've stolen the compartment I was in." He moved across the compartment to where a black and silver detailed trunk was up in the luggage compartment above Harry's head. Draco took his wand out of his pocket, tapped the trunk once and lifted it down carefully. He moved across the compartment and after a quick smile, in what he hoped was a grin to them rather than a grimace as it felt it was to him, slid the door back across. He couldn't help but laugh as he saw the look of shock and surprise on all three of their faces. He moved down a few more compartments until he found his own friends. Moving into the compartment, he was nearly suffocated as someone threw themselves on him, tightening their grip around him in a hug. He gave a weak splutter and prised the arms from around himself, grinning at the girl they belonged to.

"Hey Pansy. How was your summer?" She grinned at him and helped him to put his trunk into the luggage space above their heads.

"It was great. We went to that place in Spain my Mother got us last year. It was amazing. Great weather. Sunny all the time. What about yours?" Draco thought about the feeling of tension, unease, hysteria and fear that had been coursing through him all summer since the meeting with Voldemort at the beginning of his holidays before grinning and saying,

"Yeah. It's been great." Pansy led him to a seat next to her and patted it, glaring at one of the other girl's in the compartment as she tried to get his attention and divert it from Pansy. Draco sat down in the seat, favouring his shoulder slightly that the snake tattoo was. Pansy smiled at him and took his shoulders, steering him down to the seat and his head into her lap.

"So what did you get up to?" Draco grinned at Millicent who had just spoken, causing Pansy to look sulky.

"Went away for a bit. Then been at home most of the time. Father bought me a new broom this year. The Gryffindor's won't be looking so smug when they see this broom." He smirked, feeling slightly better now that something was as it should be. He sat up, glancing towards Blaise Zambini and Crabbe and Goyle.

"Fancy going for a walk?" Pansy climbed to her feet.

"I will." He shook his head.

"No. Just me and those three." They all climbed to their feet, moving to where Draco was stood near the sliding compartment door. They followed him out, Draco careful to close the door again as they moved along the corridor.

"So…how have your summer's been?" They shrugged. Blaise didn't make any comment, suddenly looking nervous. Draco recognised the frightened look in his eyes. It was he felt all the time and a sudden suspicion stole over him. He raised an eyebrow at Blaise's silence, but he didn't comment on it. Goyle shrugged and replied in his low grunting voice,

"It was s'ok." Crabbe nodded.

"Same." Draco nodded.

"Father's getting tickets for the England V Ireland match soon. I could maybe make it so he gets a few more if you wanted to join me?" They all nodded, suddenly looking eager.

"Sure."

"That'd be great Drake."

"Yeah…" Draco smirked.

"Yeah, Father's always been able to get the best really hasn't he? It's only fair that I share his good fortune with you." They sideways glanced each other, not quite daring to roll their eyes in his presence. Blaise frowned slightly and suddenly snapped,

"Just because we don't go to as much you, doesn't mean we're charity cases. We could afford just as much as you. We just choose not too." Draco's eyes widened in surprise and he opened his mouth to retaliate, but closed it again and shrugged, not wanting to fall out with Blaise.

"I know. I was just offering you the opportunity if you wanted it. You don't have to take it. Sorry." The three boys stopped walking and stared at him in surprise. Draco looked away, knowing he had just said something he would never normally say, had he been in a different situation. Blaise grinned suddenly and nodded.

"Sure. I'll go. Thanks for asking me." Draco grinned too, before they carried on with their walk around the school train. Blaise stopped suddenly, a look coming over him as though he had just scented a particularly interesting prey. Draco followed his friends gaze and his eyes widened slightly as he realised they had taken the way past Potter's compartment. Crabbe and Goyle had seen them too now.

"Let's have some fun, shall we?" Blaise nodded towards their compartment. Draco shrugged.

"Don't you think we're a bit too mature by now to have a go at them?" Blaise looked at him incredulously and moved towards the compartment, closely followed by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Alright Potty? Been having anymore hallucinations recently?" Harry's terse reply didn't quite reach Draco's ears as he moved forwards too. Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle gave a loud roar of laughter and turned to look at Draco to see why he wasn't laughing. He gave a thin lipped smile and a slight chuckle. Blaise carried on.

"I hear they've got you a cell reserved in Azkaban…you know near all the hallucinating loons." Harry was suddenly on his feet, moving rapidly towards the three of them. Ron stopped him, grabbing onto his robes. Harry's eyes suddenly fell onto Malfoy.

"What's up with you Malfoy? Gone awfully quiet all of a sudden, haven't you? Why aren't you attacking me like everyone else? I'd have thought you'd have been the first to tell me I was crazy!" Draco opened his mouth to say something, blood pounding heavily in his ears as he tried to think of a witty comment to make.

"Maybe I feel that I'm above you by now Potter. Afterall, I'm not the one having fantasies that the Dark Lord has returned. What does it do? Get you a high on it? Or maybe…" They never found out what else it might do as a sudden searing pain in his shoulder caused him to cry out, catching hold of the door to stop himself falling on his face onto the floor. He lowered himself slowly to the floor, Harry's wand pointing at him suddenly. Blaise leant down to his friend, a concerned expression flitting across his features.

"What you doing to him Potter? Take it off now?" Harry's eyes narrowed as he lifted the wand away from Draco, who gave another short gasp of pain. Pain rolled over him in sharp hot waves, eventually reaching a climax, always centred at the point of the mark on his shoulder. Blaise began to look scared now and turned to Goyle, snapping to him to get an owl and send a letter to Snape at the school. He hurried off back to their compartment. Blaise bit his lip and tried to help Draco to stand, which caused Draco to cry out even more. Harry pushed forwards to the front of the compartment.

The way Draco was twitching looked like he was under the cruciatus curse, but that couldn't be. No-one had cast it at him. Draco's face had gone deathly pale, tinged slightly green.

"Don't just stand there Crabbe, you idiot. Help me." Crabbe bent down and slipped his arms underneath Draco's legs and under his shoulder's, sliding him easily off the floor. Draco screamed, the cry wrenching through anyone who heard it. Hermione raised her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide over the top of them. She turned her gaze to Harry and whispered,

"What did you do?" He turned angrily and to her and snapped,

"I didn't do anything. I just pointed my wand at him. You know I did. And if I had done something to him, I wouldn't have used something akin to the cruciatus curse now would I?" Hermione's eyes widened. Blaise ignoring them, snapped,

"Lay him down here." Crabbe moved to the seat and lay his friend down on it. Draco's eyes were flickering underneath the closed lids, as though he was fighting something within himself. They all stared horror struck at him as he let out another whimpering cry.

_He was running. Deeper and deeper into the darkness. Something was pursuing him yet he didn't know what. A scream of laughter from behind him caused him to push himself faster, not wanting the thing to catch him as he knew if it did, he would be gone completely, nothing more than a puppet for Voldemort to use. No emotions would be allowed to him. The crashing of the undergrowth around him caused him to stop suddenly, needing to sense where the creature had gone. A deep rumbling laugh surrounded his senses, taking him over as he fought for consciousness. _

"_You can run little boy, but you can't hide…the next time you see me may be in your waking hours…" The guttural laugh sounded again, this time close to his ear. Before his body allowed him to turn round and see who or what had made the laugh, light began to shimmer around him, guiding him away from the darkness, back to himself… _

"What was that?" Hermione asked staring at Draco in horror, as the guttural laugh came out of Draco's mouth not sounding like his own softer yet sarcastic sounding voice. Blaise stared in open horror at his friend, not bothering to answer her.

"Why…What just happened?" Ron's shaky voice broke the silence for a second time. People had gathered at the compartment door, arriving to see what the shouting and screaming was for. Blaise standing up abruptly and snarling at them,

"Go away! He's not something to ogle at in a muggle zoo or something. Get out of here!" They began to slowly disappear, muttering under their breath at Draco's state of mind. Blaise turned slowly back to his friend, kneeling by his side. His eyes were still underneath the shuttered lids now, as though he was merely sleeping. Blaise bit his lip, turning as running feet announced the arrival of someone. Pansy threw herself into the compartment, ignoring Harry, Ron and Hermione and dropped to her knees.

"Drake…come on…" Blaise met her frightened gaze and glanced towards Draco, then to Harry. Pansy seemed to have understood and climbed to her feet, anger blazing in her face.

"What did you do Potter?" When she spoke, her voice was perfectly level, the only giveaway at a slight tremble on Harry's name. He rolled his eyes and answered brusquely.

"I didn't do anything. I merely pointed my wand at him. If I had done something to him, do you really think that I would have done that?" Pansy shrugged, her eyes flashing dangerously as she snarled,

"I don't what you'd do to him Potter. It's common knowledge that you hate him." Harry's eyes widened. Anger simmering beneath the surface eventually broke out.

"SO YOU THINK I'D HARM HIM DO YOU?" Pansy shrugged, advancing on him a step.

"Like I said Potter, I don't know you and, quiet frankly, I'm glad I don't with a temper like that. One of these days it's going to get you killed…" Harry raised his wand again, the hand holding it shaking slightly and red sparks emitting from the end of it.

"Was that a threat Parkinson?" Harry's voice was quietly threatening. Pansy narrowed her eyes, pink tinges appearing in her cheeks as she swept some of her dark hair out her eyes.

"I guess it was Potter. What you going to do about it? Do the same to me as what you did to poor Draco?" Hermione's gaze flickered between the two of them, her eyes wide.

"Harry…" Harry spun round and snapped aggressively,

"What?" Hermione recoiled slightly then carried on in a tremulous voice,

"M…Maybe y…you did it by accident? You've done magic by accident before now." Harry's face darkened and he turned to her and snarled,

"So you think that I'd do magic like that on Draco because I got a bit angry? Thanks, Hermione. That gives me a great amount of trust in you. What will you say next? Agree with them?" He jabbed his finger sharply at Pansy and Blaise, narrowly missing poking pansy painfully in the face. Blaise suddenly made a violent gesture and motioned for them to shut up.

"He's waking up…" The other four crowded round Draco, who's eyes were flickering beneath his stirring eyelids. He moaned slightly and lifted a hand to his head as though it pained him and finally towards his shoulder.

"I'm too hot…" Blaise immediately got up and opened the windows in the compartment.

"That better for you Drake?" Draco nodded slightly, his hands trembling as he pushed his fringe out of his eyes, his hair now totally messed up from the slicked back style he had had that morning. A hand slipped down to his shirt and unbuttoned the first few buttons, revealing milky white skin. He pushed himself up slowly, rubbing his shoulder, as though it pained him. Pansy was by his side instantly,

"What did he do to you? What did Potter do?" Draco shook his head. Blaise frowned slightly.

"You don't know?" Draco shook his head before replying in a quiet voice.

"Wasn't him…" Harry smirked smugly and gave Pansy and Hermione an 'I- told-you-so' look.

"I…I just need to get to the school. See Proffessor Snape." He rubbed at his shoulder again. Blaise glanced at it questioningly but did nothing. He helped his friend up and moved out of the compartment door, a glance back at Harry, Ron and Hermione making it perfectly clear that he didn't trust them.

_**There we go. Chapter two…thanks for the reviews those of you who did. It does mean a lot and makes me know what people think to the stories I write. If there is anyway I could improve the way I write or ideas etc, then review and let me know. : ) smiles all round **_


	3. Unexpected Help

Draco climbed out of the train carriage in Hogsmeade, glancing around the station, reaching to grasp Pansy's outstretched hand so he didn't lose his friends in the throng, before they plummeted into the middle of the pushing and shoving crowd and the lashing rain.

Eagerness to get to the school rampaged through Draco's body as his thoughts flew through the conversation he would be having with his Godfather very soon.

They reached a carriage and pushed into it, Pansy releasing his hand as she settled herself into the seat next to him, her hands flying up to try and amend the mess of her saturated, rain covered hair.

"What's up Drake?"

Draco jumped slightly as a question was asked him, turning to look in a slightly dazed way at Blaise.

"N…Nothing. Why?"

Blaise gave him a searching glance, raising an eyebrow slightly as though to say to tell him later.

Draco gave his friend a faint smile and turned to take up staring out of the window again, studying rain lashed countryside they were passing. It seemed that that weather was certainly matching his thoughts.

They were a tumult of confusion inside his head, feelings, memories and questions whirling round, one in particular coming back to the forefront.

"_Why would Harry want to befriend him? How could he possibly succeed in what he was meant to do without bringing shame on his Father? And what had that dream meant in Potter's carriage?_"

He sighed heavily, not noticing that the carriage was slowing down as they reached the Hogwarts grounds and stopped outside the castle, the door opening of its own accord.

"Drake? Come on. We're there."

Draco again was woken up from his thoughts, this time by Pansy.

He climbed to his feet, shaking his head slightly to try and alleviate some of the pressure which was forming there due to the overly active sub-conscious of his brain.

He pulled his cloak around himself a little more for warmth and protection from the still heavily falling rain, and began to step down from the carriage, ignoring the slightly awed looks he was receiving from the younger Slytherins within the crowd, now pushing to get to the Great Hall.

He merged into it without waiting for his friends, suddenly needing time to himself.

A conversation taking place about three paces in front of him caught his attention, and he glanced up to see Harry gesticulating angrily as he glared balefully at Hermione.

"…much as dares to try and put the blame on me, then he'll know about it. I don't know why they dared to say it was me. I don't know how _you_ dared to say it was me! I hate the guy, but jeez! I wouldn't purposely hurt him like that."

Draco dropped his gaze again, trying to look as inconspicuous as he possibly could, so he could hear the others reply to what Harry was saying.

" Yes, well, he's fine now…"

"More's the pity…"

"Ronald! As I was saying, he's fine now, but you have to admit there was something strange about it. He just collapsed and then…"

She hesitated, for some reason side glancing Ron.

"That laugh…it wasn't natural. It was in a totally different timbre to his own."

Ron's sniggers suddenly subsided and he snapped pointedly,

"Why would you notice if it sounds like Malfoy or _not_? He's a ferret featured little shit, to put it bluntly. It doesn't matter if he didn't sound like himself. He probably…"

He was cut off by Harry.

"You think he was being possessed or something?"

Hermione shook her head, suddenly looking unsure of herself.

"No, no. Not possessed. You can't be possessed on anything to do with Hogwarts anyway. Too many protection spells. And _certainly not_ in Hogwarts itself. I don't know. It's just…strange."

Harry nodded, all three of them turning silent as they ran quickly up the stairs, glancing up gratefully as they realised they were in the dry Entrance Hall.

Draco sighed heavily as he followed them in, splitting up as they reached the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables, the questions again bouncing around his already throbbing head again.

He sat gracefully down on the bench, dropping his head into his hands, trying to find some comfort in his cold fingers massaging his pulsing temples.

"Where'd you go to Drake? We turned around and you weren't there. You O.K?"

Blaise's' voice again broke through the chaos of Draco's thoughts.

He winced and unwillingly lifted his head from the safe haven of his hands, shaking his head slightly again. This was a bad mistake as his head exploded with pain, leaving him cringing in the bright light and for Blaise to instantly ask again what was wrong.

"N…Nothing…ouch!"

Everyone eventually being settled, the sorting had finally begun. The hat was in the middle of the stage, the rip acting as it's mouth as it sung the chosen song for that year.

Draco barely paid any attention to the words, his concentration taken up on the job of keeping his mouth tightly glued shut as he tried not to vomit.

He realised he was going to lose that battle as his stomach gave an uncomfortable and very painful squirm, the contents of the little food he had eaten on the train gurgling.

He shot to his feet, his hands clutching his stomach as he dashed out of the hall, ignoring the interested eyes of the other students on him.

He managed to just reach the toilets in the Dungeons and throw himself over a cubicle as he vomited noxious smelling green bile into the toilet.

Breathing heavily, and feeling a light sheen of sweat coat his forehead, he knew that he was perfectly alone in this quest. He didn't want to do this quest, but his Father needed him to do this for him. To keep family honour…

He closed his eyes and rested his head on the toilet seat, ignoring the smell.

His emotions had been confusing him lately.

He _hated_ Harry, yet he couldn't ever kill him. He didn't have the guts to kill anyone. What the Dark Lord had asked him to do was the only thing that he didn't have the guts to complete, as he knew he would have to do in order to keep his own life and that of his Mother and Father's.

"Oh God, what have I gotten myself in with?"

The question wasn't meant to be answered, yet a well known voice did answer.

The subject of his thoughts answered loud and clear behind him, causing him to jump to quickly to his feet and his head to answer to that with a bout of dizziness, causing him to fall again.

"By the smell of in here, you're in with drugs, Malfoy."

Harry blatantly ignored the look on Draco's face and moved to the cubicle furthest away from him. His voice still carried on conversationally though, the words all intending to wound and hurt at the same.

"OR, of course, I've finally found out the secret to your runt like stature."

That raised the hackles a bit and Draco managed to choke out,

"I'm not exactly short Potter."

"Yeah, but you're not exactly Mr. Muscle either are you? It's obvious what's up with you."

The toilet flushed and Harry stepped out, throwing a critical look at Malfoy over his shoulder before continuing as he stepped to the sink.

"You're obviously more feminine than you'd like to admit. Sure you aren't using that spell to turn you into a bloke and you're actually a girl?"

Harry smirked, turning the tap and washing his hands, shaking them slightly to remove excess water before turning and grabbing a couple of hand towels, drying his hands and walking to drop them into the bin before turning and looking at Draco.

He was just emerging from the cubicle he had been in, his face ghostly pale making him look even whiter than usual.

Harry frowned slightly.

"What's the matter with you? _Are_ you on drugs?"

Draco ignored Harry pointedly, not wanting to annoy the dark haired boy any more than he had to if he was going to have to befriend him.

The direction his thoughts immediately took caused his stomach to tighten again, causing him to turn back to the cubicle he had just vacated, lean over the toilet and heave violently.

He felt himself begin to shake slightly, his breathing coming in short sharp gasps, his head beginning to swim in dizziness.

"Malfoy…what are you doing?"

Draco closed his eyes, wishing Harry would leave him be, not wanting to be seen like this when he was at his most vulnerable. He was a private person with his feelings and didn't want Harry poking fun at him.

"Leave me alone, Potter…"

He retched over the toilet again, the shaking and dizziness getting worse. He closed his eyes, concentrating on trying to calm his breathing and so didn't hear the cubicle door creaking open.

"Malfoy…do you need to go to the hospital wing?"

Draco screwed his eyes tight shut, wishing Harry would leave him. Pain was shooting through his stomach now, spasms making him nearly cry out in pain, red spotting his vision.

He gripped onto the tiles of the floor, trying to control the pain and climb to his feet.

As he climbed up, he stumbled into Harry, the spinning in his head getting worse.

"Help me…"

He felt the pain in his stomach increase another notch and heard himself, as though in a dream, cry out. He felt a burning wetness coursing down his cheeks and realised he was crying from the pain.

"Woah…Malfoy…what are you…what's the matter?"

He gestured at his stomach, nearly doubling over as he did so.

"My stomach…make the pain stop…it's…"

He felt his legs begin to give way, bracing himself for the crash onto the cold tiles of the floor, but strong arms caught him, steadied him and then began to lead him slowly to the door.

"Take it easy Malfoy…we're nearly there…come on…hold on…"

Draco felt arms sweep his legs out from underneath him, his thoughts slowly slipping into delirium of the spotted redness and, finally, blackness.


	4. Revelations

Draco felt awareness slowly slipping back to him, voices muffled as he turned his head slightly, groaning. His eyes flickered open, blurry movements sending him into dizziness again.

A voice he dimly recognised fluttered through to his consciousness, causing him to turn towards it.

"Poisoned? Who would want to poison our son? He's done nothing to anyone. I want this matter sorted out immediately. Check the god damned food on that train. Pull that blasted witch in for questioning. I want this matter dealt with immediately!"

Draco sat up shakily, blinking rapidly as he tried to focus on his Father's features.

"Father…"

He flinched as raw pain shot down his throat, causing him to whimper.

Instantly, someone was there, a hand rubbing up and down his back. He turned and saw the tear streaked features of his Mother beside him.

"Mother…"

He swallowed, his throat feeling hugely constricted by something. He raised his hand up and felt his neck. The glands were right up, swelling his neck to twice it's normal size.

He tried to sit up to see his Father better, not quite believing that he was actually there. He felt himself begin to shake from the exertion of it, but carried on.

"Lucius, darling, our son wants to see you."

Lucius gave a dismissive gesture to the man he had been talking to and turned to his son, noting the fever bright eyes and the determination that he kept himself propped up in the bed with.

"Draco, who have you been alone with that you can remember?"

Draco swallowed and tried to talk again, but his breathing was coming in sharp, painful gasps.

"Potter…"

He saw his Father's eyes narrow as he whipped his head round to a corner of the room where someone was sat, quite calmly, that Draco hadn't noticed.

"He didn't do anything to me…"

His Mother's hand tightened it's grip on his shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly, whilst slipping her other hand up and down his arm.

"Potter…what did you do to my boy?"

Draco's gaze focussed on the figure in the corner and saw, to his immense surprise, that it was Harry.

"Why…why is…he still here?"

He had to pause between every few words to catch his breath, his teeth chattering slightly from the exertion of propping himself up.

Everyone ignored him, apart from his Mother who put a finger to her lips, then glanced back to where her husband was questioning Potter, who had not bothered to climb out of the comfy chair he was sat in.

"I didn't _do _anything. I found him like that in the toilets. Brought him straight up here. I may think you're son is a insufferable idiot, but I wouldn't poison him. So, if that's all you wanted to know, then I think I'll go back down to my friends now."

He climbed to his feet, popping his back as he did so and slipping past the angry form of Lucius Malfoy, throwing Draco an annoyed glance as he left.

Draco settled back down onto the pillows, his head spinning, his stomach threatening to empty it's contents again if he wasn't careful of the way he moved.

"Draco, are you feeling any better?"

Draco nodded, feeling someone put a goblet of something to his mouth, the icy coolness of it causing him to flinch away, opening his gaze.

His Father was stood before him, holding the goblet, his face full of concern.

"Drink up, Draco."

He nodded and allowed his Father to hold the goblet for him whilst he drained it.

Laying back on the pillows, he felt his eyes closing almost straight away, his Mother and Father's voices sounding faraway as he lost consciousness and drifted into the realm of dreams.

Page Break

"Drake, you awake?"

Draco glanced up from the book he was reading and nodded, a smile slipping across his features as he saw it was Blaise walking across the room.

"Hey."

His voice was still croaky, but the feelings of nausea and being sick had passed.

Blaise's face was filled with concern as he pulled a seat up, resting his hands on the side of the bed Draco was in.

"How are you feeling?"

Draco shrugged, putting his book to the side on the table on the opposite to where Blaise was.

"Better than I did. My throat is apparently ripped to ribbons though inside. Don't know how."

Blaise nodded, biting his lip as he asked,

"People have been saying you were poisoned?"

Draco shrugged, settling back comfortably on the pillows.

"Wasting poison. Don't know who would. I've not pissed anyone off to warrant that abuse surely?"

Blaise shrugged then, trying to make light of it, joked,

"Well, there's always Pansy. You've turned her down that many times, she might be getting desperate. You know, the whole render you helpless then have her wicked, vile way with you."

Draco grimaced, a grin forming across his features.

"Shut up Blaise. She isn't _that_ desperate to get her own way, I'm sure."

Blaise grinned back, his hand raising to scratch his chin.

"No. She's not that desperate. So, who is?"

Draco shrugged.

"I don't know. I'm sure my Father will find out who. He's good at that sort of thing."

Blaise nodded, glancing swiftly round the hospital wing room, biting his lip as he did so and looking unsure of whether he should speak.

Draco waited, knowing his friend only too well. Counting silently in his head, he smirked when his friend eventually spoke.

"What did you honestly get up to this summer, Drake? We've heard you saying things sometimes whilst we've been visiting you when you've had your slightly worse moments. You know when you've had a bit of a fever…"

Draco fixed him with a calculating stare, weighing up what he was about to do.

"It's probably been about as good as your holiday was…you know what I mean?"

Blaise' gaze instantly dodged away from Draco's and nodded.

"Him…"

Draco nodded, his fingers gripping the covers tightly, swallowing loudly as he opened his mouth to speak again.

"Right Zambini. Out." Madam Pomfrey drew the curtain across, revealing the rest of the hospital wing and the newly taken bed opposite Draco. "That's enough for visiting time today. You need more rest Mr Malfoy. You may feel like you could go back to school and do everything as you normally would but you are actually at the pivot point where if you do too much then you'd most likely end up being badly ill again and I'm not having that. Take your medicine."

Draco grinned apologetically at Blaise as he climbed slowly to his feet, giving him a swift look that said he could come back later if he could.

Blaise gave a slight nod and moved away to the door, rubbing his left forearm absent mindedly as he did so, showing clearly to Draco that his suspicions at least were correct.

"Come on Mr Malfoy. Take you're medicine. You haven't got all the poison out of your system yet. We need to expel all of it before your allowed back to your classes and dormitory."

Draco nodded and took his medicine without any grumbling, causing Madam Pomfrey to look at him in surprise.

Draco swallowed and then said, nonchalantly,

"What? I'm getting bored of the hospital wing. I want to get back down with my friends and into my classes again."

Madam Pomfrey smiled encouragingly at him.

"All in good time Mr Malfoy. It shouldn't be more than a couple of days now."

Draco nodded, feeling the familiar drowsiness steal over him from the medicine as he settled down into the comfortable pillows of the bed.


	5. Refusal

Draco stretched happily as he sat down at the Slytherin table, pulling breakfast items towards him, eating a piece of bacon as he did so, putting other full English items onto his plate, including more bacon.

"Hungry, Drake?"

Draco nodded, grinning up at his friend, motioning for Blaise to sit down.

"What have I missed?"

Blaise shrugged, pulling plates over to himself and loading his own plate up with food.

"Nothing much. Pansy ended up with detention from Lestrange. Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you. Rodolphus Lestrange is our new joint Transfiguration teacher. Apparently McGonagall wanted a little bit more time to herself, so they've pulled him in as a stand in for some of the lessons. We'll have her twice a week and him the other three."

For some reason, Blaise didn't look to happy about the information he had just given Draco.

"What's up Blaise?"

Blaise shrugged.

"It's that…well…you know…he's one of the inner circle. It makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable…"

Draco fixed Blaise with a fierce glance and asked bluntly,

"Have you taken the mark?"

He hissed it across the table, so as nobody would hear, masking Blaise's reply with lots of banging and clattering of his cutlery.

"Yes…I didn't want to. I was forced too…"

Draco nodded, losing the fire in his gaze.

"I know what you mean…"

Blaise's eyes widened.

"You mean…"

Draco nodded sullenly.

"I've been given the task of befriending Potter. I don't know how I'm going to do it. We've been enemies for years now. Ever since we first met. I…That's why I didn't want to pick a fight on the train. I'm going to have to do it."

Blaise swallowed.

"I know. Repercussions are of a magnitude that you don't want to mess with. Who else knows what you have to do?"

Draco shrugged.

"Snape and my Father are. That's the way I intend it to be."

Blaise nodded.

"I have the delight of a totally different mission. I am to report back to him about someone here. I won't say who. I don't wish to get you dragged into this. It will be nasty if they fail and I don't tell him."

Draco nodded, curiosity instantly consuming him.

"Give us a clue. What house are they in?"

Blaise shook his head.

"No. Not giving anything away." Blaise smirked. "You can say what you like Draco. You won't find out who I mean."

Draco shrugged, feigning disinterest.

"O.K. Fine. What lessons have you got first thing?"

Blaise raised an eyebrow at the change of subject, but pulled his timetable out, reaching into his bag again a second time and handing Draco his own timetable.

"Same as you. Snape made sure we were in similar classes. He knows about me as well. Thought it would give us some support. How are you going to befriend Potter anyway?"

Draco chewed thoughtfully, an idea slowly entering his thoughts.

"I've got one idea. Don't know if it would work though. Let me think about it a little bit."

Draco fell into a thoughtful silence throughout the rest of his breakfast, scanning his timetable for the appropriate time to do what he wanted to do.

"Mr Potter, what are you doing to that beetle's eye? It is to go in the potion, not for you to play tiddly winks with. Ten points from Gryffindor."

Snape swept past, ignoring Harry's remark, not wanting to get into an argument with the younger man and sat down again at his desk, noting the nervous glances which Draco kept throwing in Harry's general direction.

He frowned, wondering what his godson was planning before saying calmly to the class in general,

"I intend to do a quick review with each of you in turn to find out how you found the subject last year and to fill you in in more detail of what is expected from you both in your practical work and write up work. I'll give you a projected grade and we shall go from there."

There was a collective bout of muttering which quickly silenced as he cleared his throat.

"Draco, we shall start with you."

Draco, who had just been about to screw up the courage to talk to Potter as soon as Snape left the room, grimaced as he climbed out of his seat and followed his Godfather into a separate room.

"Now, how are you getting on with your extra-curricular activities? Have you made any progress?"

Draco gazed at his teacher incredulously before deciding to speak.

"I've been in the hospital wing for a little under three weeks. What do you think? I was just about to hopefully get the ball rolling after you left with one of your other students but you decided to pick me and ruined my moment. Now, I shall have to find a totally different one to act on. Just leave me to it. I will succeed in my own way. I don't need everyone's help."

He climbed to his feet.

"As for my work, I know that I'm doing perfectly well. I'm passing with good grades aren't I? And that's in everything. In every subject I've taken. I'll talk to you another time about my work."

Snape frowned and snapped, swiftly clicking his fingers to keep the door from opening.

"Draco, I don't appreciate your tone. I expect an apology."

Draco nodded, folded his arms and replied, sullenly.

"Sorry, Proffessor."

Snape motioned for him to leave.

"But very well. We shall speak of your school work some other time. If you need any help at all you know where I am. Now, go and put your idea into action."

Draco nodded, sudden nerves swooping in again.

"I will do. Who do you want me to send in next?"

Snape traced the outline of his chin, feeling the gentle scratch of his one day growth of facial hair.

"Weasley. Send him in next. Get the little orange haired turd out of your way whilst you do whatever it is you're going to do with Harry."

Draco smirked at the slight at Ron and nodded his agreement, whilst turning to the door, opening it and entering the darkened dungeon classroom.

"Weasley, you next."

Ron scowled at Draco, but was surprised when, rather than insult him; he offered a rather forced smile. Draco carried on to his own seat, waiting for Weasley to move to the room where Snape waited within.

After Ron had left, Draco took a deep breath, climbed to his feet again and moved cautiously over to where Harry and his buck toothed friend Granger were sat. He cleared his throat quietly, waiting to be noticed by either of them.

Hermione noticed him first and immediately fell silent.

"Can we help you?"

Draco fixed his gaze onto Harry, ignored everyone else around him and spoke, not allowing any interruption until he'd got out everything he wished to say to Harry.

"Potter, I just wanted to say…thank-you I guess. For taking me up to the hospital wing. If you hadn't, I guess I wouldn't be here, what with the poison and everything. So," He held out his hand for Harry to shake. "Thanks. I don't expect it to make everything better between us, but I hope it makes it…tolerable at least. I owe you."

His hand was held out for what felt like a lifetime before Harry took his gaze from Draco's hand and up to Draco's storm grey gaze.

"And why should I do that? I'd have done that for anyone Malfoy. Don't feel so special or be thinking I gave you any special treatment. I didn't. Remember that. After everything you've done, I don't see why you should have the privilege of knowing me. You've been the one which has annoyed me any chance he got, done everything in his power to get me into trouble and made mine and my friend's lives generally difficult. I think I'm safe to say that my answer is still the same as it was five years ago…the answer is no. I wouldn't shake your hand if you were the last person on earth."

Draco stared for a few seconds before taking his hand back and taking a deep breath, readying himself to drop even lower in his fellow Slytherin peer's eyes.

"I apologise for that Potter. I was acting rather childishly then. I have grown up since then and am willing to put it behind us if you are?"

Harry made a scoffing noise, before shaking his head.

"Still no Malfoy. Run along back to your friends. Like I said, not if you were the last person on earth Malfoy…"

Draco took a deep breath and nodded, before turning away, merely saying quietly,

"Sorry again. Like I said, I have grown up. I'm not childish anymore…"

He saw out of the corner of his eye Hermione watching him, before nudging Harry pointedly, whispering something which Draco couldn't quite catch.

Harry ignored her, continuing with his work, even when Hermione continued to hiss things at him.

Draco rolled his eyes, knowing how irritating it was to keep getting nagged at like that. He went and took his place, immediately accosted by Pansy, who was looking suspiciously at him.

"What were you just doing speaking civilly to Potter and the mudblood?"

Draco closed his eyes for a few seconds as though asking for strength, before turning to her and smiling coolly.

"What does it matter to you Pansy? Be quiet and get on with your work for once. Don't harass me…please?"

Pansy looked slightly taken aback, but nodded, a slight frown finally marring her features as she turned away, her gaze focussing on Harry and Hermione again.

Draco's own gaze followed that line of sight, surprised to see Harry watching him intently, almost as though he was measuring him up. Draco offered a raised eyebrow, coupled with a slight smile, the feeling making him feel ill to just to allow the small friendly movement to Potter.

Harry's face remained impassive, just continuing to watch Draco intently.

He was suddenly suspicious, a slight niggling towards the back of his mind causing him to throw up the strongest barrio he could against someone trying to force their way into his mind.

He felt a presence straight away.

It was new to him, but he knew he had them trapped within the folds of his mind, his own mind carefully pushing against the carefully constructed barriers of their mind, trying to find any form of weakness to which he could gain access to them and find the identity to whom it was he was connected to.

A thin tendril of something flowed away from the mind caught in his defences, inviting him to follow it, akin to the feeling of a breadcrumb trail.

He allowed his gaze to fix on Potter, but his facial expression hadn't changed a notch which he would have expected if it was Potter's mind which he had entrapped.

"_Draco…." _

The thin whisper of a voice inside his head made him start a little, pulling his defences even harder around the invading person, fearing that they would distract him and break out before he could find out the whereabouts and name of them.

" _Draco…don't be so stupid…you can't possibly beat me at this game…" _

Draco felt the first beginnings of fear, a tangible taste at the back of his throat as he swallowed, a flicker of recognition to the voice in the depths of his mind.

Feeling a little silly, he thought,

"_Who are you?" _

There was a slight breathy laughter before the voice replied again.

"_Now that would be telling…let's just say I'm someone keeping an eye on you. Helping you to do what's right…Your conscience, in fact…" _

Draco rolled his eyes mentally.

"_Blaise…piss off…" _

Draco suddenly doubled over onto the desk, slapping a hand to his forehead as a fierce burning pain shot through his head, the feeling of nausea overtaking him. He suddenly felt extraordinarily hot and sweaty, as though he was going to pass out. He tried to whimper as the pain increased, mounting to a crescendo within his head.

"_Now listen up and listen close to me whelp…you will find a way to get the Potter boy to trust you. If I have to take over you and use my own ways to do it, god knows I will, though it would repulse me to be so familiar with the boy. I thought you said that it would be easy for you to befriend him…prove that point to me or feel the consequences…" _

Another searing pain shot through Draco's head, right to his heart, applying a pressure there to make it uncomfortable.

"_Put your heart in his hands if you have to to get what it is needed for me. Use any means possible…otherwise, you'll be living to regret lying to your Lord Voldemort…" _

The pain was suddenly gone, just an uncomfortable feeling of light headedness consuming him as his barriers were pushed back, unveiling all his thoughts to anyway who cared to be taking a look at that moment in time.

Draco raised his head slowly, his eyes glancing quickly round the room to note who had taken in his strange behaviour.

Only Harry's green eyes were still studying him, a hint of curiosity aroused within the emerald green depths.

Draco sighed, sitting up within his seat again, back erect and sweeping a slightly shaking hand through his silver blonde hair which, he was surprised to feel was dampened lightly by sweat.

Taking a deep breath, he steadied his thought from running into a panicked motion of events as to how the Dark Lord entered his mind with all the supposed protection from the castle grounds.

Biting his lip, he tried to concentrate on the job in hand, still feeling the burning touch of Harry's eyes upon him.

Reading carefully the next direction for his potion, he sighed heavily as he realised he was going to have to collect it from the store cupboard.

"Watch my potion Blaise. Got to go to the store cupboard. Find some fluxweed…"

Blaise raised a hand to show he'd heard, before Draco slipped off his stool and headed for the door, not noticing Harry's already vacant seat.

He slipped into the darkened storeroom, grateful suddenly for the silence and the coolness within it.

Sighing, he simply leaned against one of the shelves, resting his still throbbing head against something cool, hoping to alleviate it some.

"What happened to you out there?"

Draco jumped as the voice of Harry cut the quiet darkness. He turned slowly, not wanting Potter to get edgy and think he was going to start a fight like he usually would have done.

He shrugged.

"Nothing…just got a headache. That's all. Potter…I meant what I said out there…I do want to be friends…I've acted like an arse…I really have. I know this now…"

Harry's gaze became instantly wary, tugging at his hand with his hand.

The movement made Draco smile as he realised he had expected Harry to do that.

"What are you grinning at? This is some big joke to you isn't it? Make friends with Potter, pretend to be his mate for a while and then humiliate him in some way or another…no Dra…Malfoy…I'm not stupid. Take your jokes somewhere else!"

Draco sighed heavily, suddenly feeling very work through, just wanting to escape to his room and sleep.

"Potter…I'm not wanting to do that. What's the point in that? I may as well, if I wanted to do that, humiliate you without trying to befriend you. Think logically. I'd just humiliate you without being friends. You should have known me by now…well…known me then. I'm different now. Please, let me at least prove it to you?"

Harry snorted in derision.

"What are you going to do Malfoy? Snog me?"

Draco did roll his eyes then and spat, a little more harshly than he intended,

"In your sick perverted dreams Potter…"

Harry's gaze narrowed, his arms folding across his chest.

Draco suddenly grinned, realising he had reverted to his old self for a moment there, the bickering and picking on Potter coming a lot easier than he cared to admit. He realised that it was because he was trying to like Harry too much in order to be someone likable to Harry.

"So what's it going to be Potter? Can we not at least be civil with each other and see how it goes?"

Harry's eyes narrowed further as he put two and two together.

"Why are you so keen for us to be friends Malfoy? What do you gain from this?"

Draco felt a twinge in his gut, as he shrugged and replied easily,

"A friend hopefully. Nothing to benefit me apart from that Potter."

Harry sighed and shrugged, shaking his head again.

"Not going to happen Malfoy. Like I said, you've done that much to me and my friends, why should I bother trusting you now? For all I know you could have some plot in mind to bring me down to size or whatever you and your friends would decide it was. No, my answer still stands Malfoy. Not if you were the last man on earth and I had to befriend you to survive."

He turned on his heel, pausing once to collect the ingredient that he needed, leaving Draco feeling utterly lost for what to do next.

Page Break

He sighed; his eyes fixed on the canopy of his bed, his thoughts a strange mesh of Harry Potter and friendship. He knew he needed to gain Potter's trust somehow.

"Blaise…you still awake?"

There was a murmur from the bed beside him.

"Blaise?"

He stuck his head out the curtains pulled securely round his bed, his eyes searching the gloom to where Blaise's bed was.

His friend's head was doing the same, a flash of white showing that he was grinning at him.

"What's up Drake? Can't sleep either?"

Draco shook his head, chewing on his lip thoughtfully.

"How do I befriend the scar headed twat? I can't stand the sight of him. I've tried making him look better than me. You know the whole swallow my pride act and asked him in front of everyone if we can bury the hatchet. I don't know what else to try…"

Blaise shrugged, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"Hmmm…you tried taking the brunt of something for him. You know the whole, someone does something, link it to Potter, then you step up and say it was me or drop the other person in it. You get me?"

Draco nodded, sighing heavily.

"I have the horrible feeling that I am going to lose some friends from Slytherin if I do this…"

Blaise grinned apologetically.

"It needs to be done…."

Draco nodded, a sudden thought hitting him again.

"Blaise…another thing…have you ever had Him try and read your thoughts before?"

Blaise shook his head, a sudden hunted look taking over his features.

"No…not yet…"

Draco nodded, his teeth worrying at his lip even further.

"Do you think if he did, it would mean that he doesn't trust you?"

Blaise shrugged.

"He doesn't trust anyone. Or so my Father tells me…"

Draco nodded, before offering a grin towards Blaise.

"Cheers, mate. I'll let you get some sleep now. I know I need some."

Blaise nodded, his face retreating back behind the cover of the curtains around his bed.

Draco twitched the curtains around his bed back into place before lying back down. He sighed, closing his eyes, wondering who he could get to do something and then take the rap for, if he told the teacher who it was. He decided Crabbe or Goyle wouldn't particularly be bothered, as long as he recompensed them.

Sighing heavily once again, he rolled over trying to get comfortable, his head still pounding from the onslaught earlier that day.

Page Break

Draco groaned as he came back to the waking world. The dormitory was a hive of activity as everyone began to get ready for the lessons that day. He slung his legs over the side of his bed, his head still feeling groggy as he rubbed the heel of his hand across both his eyes to clear the sleep from them.

He frowned slightly as he climbed up out of bed, his thoughts falling on the barely remembered dream he had had.

Sighing and shaking his head, he grabbed up his school uniform, heading for the showers within the Slytherin Dorm rooms, greeting people as he did so before he reached the confines of the shower room.

He smiled slightly as Blaise's voice was raised in some song or another from within one of the shower cubicles.

"Nice singing Blaise…Please don't continue though…I don't want it to be raining for our first quidditch practice tonight…"

Blaise's voice cut out, his hand sticking out of one of the curtained cubicles, making an obscene gesture at Draco as he walked past.

Draco moved into the cubicle next door to Blaise so he could still talk to his friend easily, stripping his own pyjamas off of himself and turning on the shower letting the warm water rinse away his sleepiness.

"Drake…"

Draco opened his eyes to Blaise's voice, sweeping his wet hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah?"

There was a pause for a while, making Draco wonder if he'd imagined Blaise's voice.

"You're a good friend you know?"

Draco nodded, wondering what the matter with Blaise was.

"Thanks…what's got into you?"

There was a pause again, Draco assuming Blaise was thinking through what he was going to say.

"Nothing. Just thought I'd say. Nothing wrong with that is there? You thought anymore of the idea we came up with last night?"

Draco sighed heavily before replying,

"Well, either way I get someone in trouble. I figured it would have to be Crabbe and Goyle, wouldn't it? I could at least tell them what I wanted them to do. Wouldn't he suspect me even more though if I did that of wanting to be his friend a little bit too much?"

He heard Blaise's shower turn off and the sound of Blaise pulling a towel round his waist and exiting his cubicle.

"Don't think so…well…possibly. Pay a Hufflepuff boy off to do it. They'd do anything for you. Try Greg or Simon…"

Draco shuddered as he soaped himself down, visions of how he would have to pay the boys back darkening his thoughts.

"Blaise, you know the _way_ I'd have to pay those idiots back with and I'm not _quite _ that desperate yet…"

Blaise sniggered.

"Just testing you mate. Seeing how desperate you were."

Draco rinsed the soap from his body, turned his own shower off and wrapped a towel round his own waist. He exited the shower, using a second towel to dry his hair off a little, the slight curls within it already annoying him.

"Not that desperate Blaise. I'll let you know when I am and maybe we can practice together…"

He smirked, turning the joke back on his friend, watching in amusement as Blaise's face contorted in disgust.

"Urgh…shut up Drake…"

Draco merely shrugged, heading to where he had left his school uniform, drying his chest as he moved.

"What class have we got first today?"

"Transfiguration with Lestrange. We need to get there on time. He's really arsy about that."

Draco smiled, dressing as he replied,

"Is he fair or does he favour the Slytherin's?"

"No, actually. He is fair. Surprisingly so. He even awarded the mudblood points. He should have taken them if you ask me. She's an insufferable know it all if ever there was one. She needs taking down a notch or two."

Draco smirked, shooting an interested glance at his friend.

"Not falling for the non-existent charms of Granger are we Blaise?"

Blaise shot him a look of such balefire that Draco's smirk failed on his lips.

"I'm joking! Gods! Blaise…lighten up…"

"Let's just get to lesson shall we?"

Draco carried on dressing a smirk still gracing his features, which he tried to pointedly hide from Blaise, knowing he wouldn't hear the end of it if his friend still found him ridiculing him.

Finally dressed, with all his school books in his bag, he hurried down to breakfast with Blaise, who was still acting strangely.

Not bothering to speak to anyone else, Draco began pouring cereal into his bowl, then milk and finally a healthy dose of sugar, before eating it as quick as he could, following Blaise's lead.

"Why are we rushing round so much? He hasn't even left the teacher's table yet?"

Blaise ignored him and carried on collecting his items together, Draco suddenly noting that his friends line of sight was focussed somewhere else. Following it, he was surprised to see it on the Gryffindor table.

"Who are you watching?"

Blaise's gaze snapped towards Draco at that and quickly whispered,

"Seeing how long you've got to set something up for Potter…"

Draco shook his head.

"No. If it's got to be plausible, I can't set it up."

Blaise scoffed at him.

"Come on Drake…you can't rely on everybody to do everything for you."

A frown immediately creased Draco's forehead as he climbed to his feet, swinging his bag onto his back and storming off without a word to Blaise.

Climbing the staircase, he heard someone behind him, obvious haste to try and catch up with him apparent. He slowed, thinking it might be Blaise coming to apologise to him, but was surprised to hear Potter's voice.

"Had a lover's tiff with your girlfriend did you Malfoy?"

Draco turned, his rage immediately boiling up.

"Shut up Potter. I can't be bothered with fighting with you today. Like I've said, I don't want to fight. So don't push it."

Harry looked taken aback for a second, not expecting the reply had given.

"I just want to get to my lesson," Draco continued. "And sit down and relax for a bit."

Harry laughed cruelly.

"Good luck with that in Lestrange's lesson. He makes you work."

Draco shrugged.

"I like work."

Harry raised an eyebrow at that and folded his arm across his chest.

"Since when have you ever worked at school?"

Draco drew himself up to his full height and replied with indignantly,

"I'll have you know that, despite Granger's abnormality, I am actually one of the highest scorers in all my classes, including this one."

Harry remained silent for a few seconds, which Draco took to mean he wasn't going to be spoken to again.

"Hermione isn't abnormal…If you're so clever, how much further down the list are you to Hermione then?"

Draco paused, silently contemplating what to say without sounding big headed.

" I'm not going to brag Potter. Just know that I'm further up than you…"

Ignoring the outraged noise Harry made, Draco continued to walk up the stairs to where the classroom was, his eyes widening as he recognised the charismatic figure of Lestrange already there before him…

Thanks for reading this. Review and let me know what you think! I've not updated in quite a while, bar these three chapters and I apologise for that. I've been that busy with my job! Hopefully though, I should be able to update a lot more frequently soon if I get the new job I've applied for. So, fingers crossed! Otherwise, will update as often as I can, not leaving as long between updates as I have been doing.


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